Best Street Food in Ouarzazate — Southern Snacks and Market Grazing

Street food in Ouarzazate is unpretentious, in keeping with the town's role as a practical desert-gateway stop. Along the main road and near the market you will find grills turning out skewers of lamb and kefta, sandwich counters, and stalls ladling harira and bissara soup — cheap, hearty fare that suits the cool desert mornings and evenings. Griddle carts make msemmen and harcha through the day, and morning fryers turn out sfenj doughnuts.

The real street-food highlight, though, is the market and its produce. The oases around Ouarzazate — the Draa Valley, Skoura — produce some of Morocco's finest dates, and the market stalls sell them by weight alongside almonds, dried fruit, olives, bread and local honey. Grazing here, tasting the different date varieties, is a genuine regional food experience, and a bag of fresh dates makes the perfect cheap snack for a desert drive.

Because Ouarzazate is a stopover rather than a food-tourism destination, its street food is honest and local rather than a spectacle. The simple pleasures — a skewer, a bowl of soup, a handful of dates, a sfenj doughnut and a glass of mint tea — are the point, eaten cheaply amid the practical bustle of the town. The dramatic kasbah and desert setting more than makes up for the modest food scene.

Follow the busy stalls along the main road and in the market, make the local dates your must-try, and agree prices before ordering. In this desert town, street food is simple, cheap and quietly rewarding — especially those superb oasis dates straight from the source.